Reaction pathways in the supercritical water oxidation of typical alcohols

Supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) experiments of typical alcohols such as methanol, ethanol, isopropanol were carried out by using an innovatively designed lab scale, continuous flow gas sealed wall reactor (GSWR) to explore the reaction pathways and generalities of simple alcohols. The investigation indicates that during the supercritical water oxidation reactions, methanol has a lower conversion than ethanol and isopropanol, and with the main intermediate of formaldehyde. However, the important intermediates for SCWO of ethanol and isopropanol include acetone, acetic acid, acetaldehyde and methanol. Dehydrogenation, decomposition and polymerization reactions associated with many free radicals are involved in the supercritical water oxidation processes of all three alcohols, and three kinds of products produced, which include chemicals with the increased, unaltered and decreased carbon chain compared with the reactants, but generally speaking, the tendency of decreased carbon chain orientation dominates for the SCWO reactions of alcohols, and has the terminal products of carbon dioxide and water.